Weapon or tool?
 

Good evening
anyone know what that is, where it comes from and how old it is?
blade length of 20cm
Handle length 26cm
9mm in thickness of the blade 3mm attacked on sharp.
gruss chregu

Druide knife :D

Grürtzi,
I am not sure, but it could be what Stone on page 83 in his Glossary calls a Ram Dao or sacrificial axes, and that would make it Indian, but he also mentions that some of the could be for agriculture. The Ram Dao can have many different forms and sizes.

Chregu,

That looks like a Hasiya (aka Khurmi) from Nepal. You can see examples here and here.

hello mandaukudi
A small problem, my sickle is not made of gold. smile.

Here is the picture from Stone, no. 1 and 2 are supposed to be Nepalese.

u 've been too fast :rolleyes:
when I saw the pic, it's the 1st thought coming to my spirit ... :p

à +

Dom

hallo Jens Nordlunde
I read the description in the Stone, but I do too little.
therefore I have tried in this way to find out what it is.
Many thanks anyway
gruss chregu

We actually had a real druid's sickle show up a couple of years ago, although the picture is long gone. Think fancy European sickle with a horn handle like a fancy carving knife and silver trim. It was probably regalia from a 19th or early 20th century druid's lodge (think Elks Lodge, not neopagan, although there are neopagan druids nowdays).

And some years ago, a modern druid did try cutting down mistletoe with a golden sickle he made (he was also a jeweler), and found out that yes, gold will cut mistletoe, although it's 1-2 branches per golden sickle before the blade breaks.

As for this piece, the decoration looks like Indian or Nepalese.

Best,

F

Catte
 

Not Nepalese, Ceylonese (now Sri Lanka) - a very ornate form of the local billhook (or one of the local shapes) generally known as a "catte"... pronounced kattay - not sure of the spelling as currently in France and my archives are in the UK...

So a tool (CH serpe/gertel/hippe/heppe/haumesser), not a weapon....

In the Stone image above, nos 3 and 4 (possibly also no 5) look to be from Ceylon as well....

Just checked the web - one version called a Ran-kaetta- see: http://books.google.fr/books?id=Nk8x...llhook&f=false

Also cattie, see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/29997802/Old-Ceylon-1877

Also ketta, see: http://www.jstor.org/pss/93135

hello Billman
Thank you for this absolutely great information.
Sincerely Chregu

Alternative spellings
 

Very pleased to have been of help - I've just found a few more alternative spellings:

"Catty" we use comes from the Tamil "Katthi" - a knife or billhook - see: http://www.infolanka.com/org/srilanka/cult/38.htm

Also 'ketha' see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/srilan...s/message/3739

In southern India the local name for a billhook is 'kandali' in the kannada language - which I guess may have the same etymological roots

see: http://books.google.fr/books?id=E1C3...page&q&f=false

Once you start searching the www it is difficult to stop...

Hullo everybody, :)

As there have been much 'cross-pollination' between Sri Lanka and the Archipelago over the centuries, I thought I'd include the Soenda term for this 'billhook': Tjongkrang.

Best,

Many thanks - another word for my billhook lexicon - only a few thousand other languages and dialects to go.....

Note the resemblance to SEA mak

Hi just found some images from Parker, ref tools from Ceylon...

Just need to remember who Parker is....

Update: Found it - H Parker, Ancient Ceylon 1909 - see http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=N...page&q&f=false